To go or not to go that is the question…..

A rather poor doff of the cap to the bard I know but we are the Airfield in Shakespeare country!  We are heading in to better weather as spring slow turns towards summer.  We have had a superb spell of flying weather during April and the decision to fly has been a relatively easy one.  What happens however in your own decision making process when the decision becomes a little less clear cut.  Should we be considering other issues than just the weather when reaching our decisions?

Captaincy

We reach our decisions based on our own past experiences. Unfortunately we cannot teach experience and so we have to sometimes extend ourselves to gain it.  As a club we are in a good position to be able to do this as there is a wide range of experience and I think it helps if  more experienced pilots can mentor newer pilots in safe operations.

Pressure

The pressure to fly can be enormous so a good way of reaching a clear decision about flying or not is to take a bit of time to self brief.

If you have passengers it’s a good plan to go somewhere else – isolate yourself from them.  There are two good reasons for this.

Firstly you may want to ask someone else for input which might either unsettle your passengers if you show them that there is a potential situation that you want to avoid/explore further, or un-nerve them if you start using phrases like “If the viz is bad I can always crawl along the M40 to Gaydon and sort it from there…”, we can all recall the scene in “Airplane” when the crew thought the PA was switched off….

Secondly it protects you from becoming subject to their peer pressure and “Getthereitis” which can have dangerous consequences. Passengers are notoriously bad at reaching a clear decision about the safety of a flight.  It takes a strong person to stand up to several passengers who want to get back home for work the next day etc.  Use the “just popping to the tower/café to get an update” as your escape route.  If in doubt use your mobile to ring up for help or reinforcements!

Balancing Risk

Several acceptable risks can combine to form an overall unacceptable situation, so be aware that we all have a capacity to cope up to a point.  Once that point is reached, our performance will deteriorate very quickly.  You may recognise this as a stress level.

Its all about balancing risk to a level you are comfortable with. You might consider a flight over land an acceptable risk in a single engine aeroplane but not over water.  I’ve heard that said many times. Others may take the view that the engine doesn’t know its over water. That’s a personal view and its your view.  What is acceptable to some people is unacceptable to others.  These are personal views.

Uncertainty

Sometimes we are faced with something totally new.  A classic example this month was volcanic ash.  When the news first broke we were all doomed like the last days of Pompeii.  Pumice was going to fall on our cars and blot out the sun – who knows if it had gone on longer I expect the second coming would be making the headlines.

As time wore on and airlines began to feel the pinch a more commercial or balanced view began to emerge.  Does volcanic ash stop piston engines?  I suppose it depends on how much of it the engine ingests.  If vehicles in the Alps or Scottish Highlands were grinding to a halt because of volcanic ash then you would be brave/crazy to consider flying an aeroplane.  However in the absence of a balanced view that piece of new information might rightly be factored in to a go no go decision.

Make a decision and stick to it

Captaincy is all about making decisions.  You may consider various separate factors which on their own could be acceptable risks such as the weather, your currency, the kit in the aeroplane, your confidence, your medical fitness the onset of nightfall, time constraints etc. However when one or two factors begin to combine your work load will rise. The secret is keeping the work load to an acceptable level – managing the risks so to speak.

We have all flown an aeroplane with a toppled DI/AI or no such instrument at all perfectly safely when we can see clearly out of the window.  This becomes a bit more taxing in cloud or poor visibility or with the approach of dusk.  So you see the decision is never clear cut and may be made with respect to any combination of factors.  The point is once the decision is made stay with it.  Once you begin to get coaxed away from your decision as soon as the first unplanned issue arises your confidence and competence will start to ebb away.  That’s when flight safety is compromised.

We can always make the choice to fly another day and that is the end of the process.

However, do bear in mind that if you are constantly reaching the fly another day decision it might be a sign that you need a bit of help either through confidence training or understanding.  There are no daft questions in aviation and there is plenty of experience on hand to help you that’s what the club is all about.

Safe flying

John E